Baby monitors are well known and have been around for years. Generally, a baby monitor consists of a base unit and a remote unit. The base unit contains a microphone for receiving ambient sounds near where the unit is located and a way to send those received sounds to the remote unit. The remote unit of the baby monitor generally has a way to obtain the sounds received by the microphone of the remote unit, and a speaker for playing the sounds back.
While baby monitors could use wired technology, in recent years wireless technology has proved sufficiently reliable and inexpensive so as to permit the base unit to contain a transmitter for transmitting the received sounds and the remote unit to contain a receiver to receive the sounds. These transmitters and receivers may operate at any frequency, and commonly use the well known 900 Mhz or 2.4 Ghz bands.
Generally the base unit is plugged in, and in the better models also has battery backup. Also, generally, the remote unit has a plug and in the better models a rechargeable battery to permit mobile use within the limits of the radio range.
A number of variations have recently been on the market. For example, many baby monitors have included lights to indicate the sound level and/or the radio reception. Better models of baby monitors provide a second channel so that the caretaker can select the one with better reception. At least one baby monitor now comes with two remote units permitting two caretakers to monitor them in different locations.
Often baby monitors are used in the caretaker's bedroom to listen for the baby awakening in the nursery. When this happens, the baby monitor may magnify the sounds from the nursery prohibiting the caretaker from sleeping because the baby is making short or small noises. While the caretaker can turn down the volume on the monitor, he or she must be very careful not to put the volume of the monitor too low to hear the baby cry. Inevitably, the volume is left higher than necessary to make sure that the caretaker is awakened by real crying, thus preventing the caretaker from getting sleep when the short or small noises occur. What my wife and I found is that our little Alexa, who at the writing of this document is just three months old, make all kinds of squeaks and peeps that broadcast loudly through the remote unit, often keeping us awake.
Many parents believe that babies, at a fairly young age, should be conditioned to sleep. One theory on such conditioning is by a Dr. Robert Ferber. The process of conditioning a baby to sleep following Dr. Ferber's method is referred to as “Ferberizing.” My mother-in-law, on the other hand, said that she used to do something just like that, but called it “letting the baby cry it out.” Regardless of the name one assigns to it, the process involves some intentional delay in attending to the baby once cry has started.
For example, Dr. Ferber recommends, depending on a number of factors including how aggressive the caretaker wants to be and how many nights the conditioning has already taken place, that, until the baby falls asleep, a first period is waited before comforting the crying baby a first time, a second, longer period is waited before comforting the crying baby a second time, and a third, even longer period is waited before comforting the crying baby the third and subsequent times. In addition to varying the duration of the first, second and third periods, it is also desirable to vary the duration of all three periods on successive nights. Dr. Ferber, proposes that the first, second and third periods are each longer on the second night, and even longer on the third and subsequent nights. Eventually, according to Dr. Ferber, the baby will learn to stop crying and sleep better quite quickly—often in just a few days.
But these few days are a tough few days for the caregiver. What my wife and I found extremely difficult with our first child, Jonathan, was waiting for the interval to elapse while listening to his crying go un-consoled. In practice, each time my wife and I conditioned the sleep of my first child, Jonathan, we found ourselves going back into our room where we kept the baby monitor to listen to him and watch the clock. Although conditioning Jonathan's sleep took only 3 or 4 days, unfortunately, we found ourselves having to do it more than once as a result of breaking Jonathan's sleep conditioning. And it is all too easy to break the sleep conditioning. For example, when Jonathan would get sick, my wife and I would spend the night consoling him. When Jonathan got better, his sleep conditioning no longer existed, and he needed to be reconditioned.
What is needed is a monitor that can assist in resolving these problems and difficulties, and that can potentially lead to better sleep for the caretakers.